Catalyst: Empowering Rural America

Leo Guzman
Photo by Stanford Graduate School of Business

Leo Guzman’s company is switching electric cooperatives from coal to clean energy.

The problem: Rural regions pay more for electricity and rely heavily on coal-powered sources.

The plan: Disrupt the rural energy economy and lead the transition to cleaner power.

Leo Guzman wasn’t looking to start a revolution when he cofounded Guzman Energy in 2013. Raised in a “very, very small town” in Cuba, he’d come to the U.S. alone as a teen, attended Columbia and Stanford (MBA ’71), and had a successful career in finance. He was still running his own brokerage firm, Guzman & Company. But he loved creating businesses, and his team was scouting for new opportunities in energy markets.

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Kit Carson Electric Cooperative (KCEC), Taos NM

KCEC has partnered with Guzman Energy since 2016. KCEC’s goals were to stabilize their wholesale cost of power; KCEC’s wholesale rates had been raised at least 10 times over the 12-year period preceding its exit from its legacy G&T supplier

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City of Aztec, NM

The City of Aztec, NM was one of Guzman Energy’s first wholesale customers in 2016. The partnership remains strong and multifaceted to this day. Aztec’s goals were to stabilize their wholesale cost of power and increase local solar power generation

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